Cristina Stamatescu, Chair

On foot of preparatory work initiated in 2024 on a project involving the training and mentoring of endangered sub-Saharan African lawyers – namely, the IRLI Mentoring Programme with Frontline Defenders – this project was rolled out in the first half of 2025. Mentoring sessions were provided by the Chair and by Gary Lee and Stephen Collins on a fortnightly basis and were very well received.

As part of this wider project of Frontline Defenders, the Chair, with Gary Lee and Michael Lynn SC (chair, Human Rights Committee of the Bar Council) met with an endangered lawyer and the spouse of an endangered lawyer from Western Sahara and Thailand, respectively, in April 2025 at the Law Society of Ireland.

The committee’s main project was its annual human-rights conference on 28 November 2025, which was a great success. Mr Justice Gerard Hogan opened the conference. A modular panel format was adopted, comprising the CEOs of NGOs, leading academics, and frontline practitioners working in an all-Ireland context (including the Irish Refugee Council, Irish Immigrant Council, and the online safety coordinator of the Children’s Rights Alliance, CEO of Oxfam Ireland Jim Clarken, executive director of Irish Rule of Law International (Northern Ireland) Maria McCloskey, former CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Noeline Blackwell, and registrar and deputy president of UCD Prof Colin Scott, and others.

The three panels discussed making rights meaningful for all communities, advancing human rights across borders, and law, policy and accountability.

The committee also responded to an invitation from director of policy Dr Brian Hunt to submit topics that could be considered for research by the Law Society’s Centre for Justice and Law Reform. It also cooperated with the Policy Department in preparing a joint submission with the Mental Health Task Force subgroup on the development of protection of liberty safeguards legislation in response to Department of Health stakeholder consultations.

The committee also fed into the Centre for Justice and Law Reform with submissions and observations on the general scheme of the International Protection Bill 2025, which ran into 2026.

Planning also got underway to announce the previously moribund HREC Annual Student Essay Competition, led by Eithne Lynch (head of pro bono, A&L Goodbody) with the participation of her firm, in providing a prize of a one-month paid summer internship for 2026. This competition was rolled out in early 2026.